12 Years
by ShazzyZhang
Summary: 12 years had passed in the prison. Things had changed. People grew up, and Little Ass Kicker wasn't so little anymore. Total AU based on the show. Told from now 12 year old Little Ass Kicker's POV
1. Chapter 1

_AN: I dunno how long this one is gonna go. I'm hoping to make it more than a one-shot, but we'll see how inspired I stay. This is completely and AU, set 12 years down the road from the series. We'll see how this goes._

_Bear with me._

_-Shazzy_

**-Not so Little-**

My name is Judith Grimes. Although, Uncle Daryl still calls me "Little Ass Kicker".

I'm 12 years old now, as old as my brother was when the entire world went to hell in a hand basket.

Hmm, dad probably wouldn't approve of me cussin' like that, but what he don't know won't hurt him.

We still live in the prison, although it's become a lot more like a commune now. Kind of a weird fortress meets hotel, according to Carl.

Carl is my brother. He's twenty-four years old and a pain in my ass. He thinks he's king of the world, just because he's outlived so many people. He's a good leader though, I can see why everyone respects him as much as they do. Carl lives in Woodbury now. He's become their leader, and he still comes by to visit every couple of days, with his wife, Beth.

Dad lives in the prison with me and Uncle Daryl and some other survivors.

We also have a little town thing called Hilltop. It's like Woodbury, but we built it from the ground up.

That was our world. Three little towns trying to survive alone against the hordes of walkers that still wandered in from time to time.

We very rarely saw other survivors anymore. Just walkers.

Dad said it had been about three years since the last survivors arrived at our doorstep. And there weren't a lot of kids my age comin' through either. Dad was worried, I could tell that much. He seemed a lot more tired lately than usual, too. I guess it wasn't easy being the leader of all these people. My dad was like a king.

I liked that, it made me a princess.

A princess who could kick your ass for lookin' at me wrong, but a princess nonetheless.

Life at the prison was pretty good for what we had, and things were pretty stable, we had food and water and crops and friends.

Unfortunately, everything was about to change.


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: Your responses were kind enough that I thought I'd give it a go. I hope that I can craft as good of a story as they did with the actual show._

_And of course, I don't own anything related to TWD..._

_-Shazzy_

**-infection-**

It was routine as usual for us. Uncle Daryl insisted that I learn how to use weapons, so I had to do that. That was always the first thing that I did. And sometimes, if I was lucky, I would get a second lesson in the evening. Then Dad made me help in the gardens. I was taught how to tell good plants from weeds, what was edible, what wasn't, how to collect seeds, when to plant, blah blah blah. I didn't like working in the garden, but Dad insisted that I learn everything about keeping things running smoothly, just in case. I was even learning how to cook and how to treat wounds.

I liked learning from Uncle Daryl the best, but that was mostly 'cause he let me cuss all I wanted.

Dad still didn't let me go on patrol though, he wanted me to be a kid a little while longer, he said. Uncle Daryl sneaked me out once though. That was fun.

Today though, something was different. Uncle Daryl and Dad were talking with another grown-up who I didn't know. Andrea and Aunt Carol were there, too and Aunt Carol looked like she was gonna be sick.

I didn't say anything right away, I just stood very quietly and listened.

"I gotta go get Merle, then!" Uncle Daryl was saying. "We can have this whole thing shut down in a coupla hours, if you let us go."

"We can't just rush in there, Daryl!" That was Dad. "If someone has done this intentionally..."

"There's an outbreak, Rick! This hasn't happened to us in eight years! Jesus! Someone's dead and now half of Hilltop is compromised. You gonna let everyone just sit there and die?"

"They have weapons, Daryl. They know how to use them."

"And? It's a panic situation, Rick. Have you forgotten the camp? When we lost Amy? And Jim?"

My Dad looked like Uncle Daryl had just punched him. I knew that look all too well. He got that look sometimes when he looked at me. I didn't understand why until Aunt Carol told me that I look just like my mom. Then it all made sense.

I didn't know who Amy and Jim were, I assumed this was a story from when the Walkers first started, back when no one knew what was going on. Obviously, it made my dad feel guilty.

"What do you want to do?" Dad asked.

"Let me and Merle go." Uncle Daryl said. "At least let us scope it out. Assess the damage, and see if there's anyone still alive."

"And if there isn't?" Dad asked.

"I'll burn Hilltop to the ground myself."

Dad shook his head. "All right, fine. I'll send work over to Woodbury. See what Carl can do to help."

"I'll take one of the fast kids." Daryl added. "One of the scouts, I dunno who yet, but I'll send 'em back if we're gonna be out longer than the afternoon."

Dad nodded and Uncle Daryl turned to walk away.

I chose to follow Uncle Daryl. Dad wouldn't tell me what was going on.

"Hey Little Ass Kicker."

I smiled. I loved that nickname! "Hey Uncle Daryl. Where are you going?"

"Gonna get Merle. We gotta head over to Hilltop." Uncle Daryl said simply. "You heard that whole conversation, so why are you asking?"

"I wanted to see what you'd tell me." I admitted.

Uncle Daryl laughed. "No sense in hidin' anything from you, kid."

"So why are you takin' Uncle Merle to Hilltop?" I pressed on.

If I can be completely honest, Uncle Merle scares the hell outta me. I mean, he's Daryl's brother, and he's really not a bad guy, but he has a bad temper and a mean streak if you piss him off. He was always nice to me, always. He never yelled or got mad at me, even if I disobeyed him or broke something or was just generally not nice to him. He loved me like I was his own kid, and he was super protective of me and he taught me how to fight barehanded, but I've seen him get mad at Daryl or at Dad and he's scary. I swear, the muscles in his arms are as big as my head, and he only has one hand because he cut it off himself when he was stuck on a roof.

Merle Dixon was like the boogeyman. He was the story you told your kids to make them eat their vegetables, or go to bed on time.

And I wanted to spend all the time in the world with him.

"Kid, you know your dad will kick my ass if I tell you what's going on." Uncle Daryl said.

"Daryl," I shot back, dropping the honorific. "I'm gonna find out anyway. Besides, I'm not a kid anymore. I'm as old as Carl was when this whole thing started. I deserve to know!"

Daryl stopped his fast walking and he crouched down in front of me. He placed his big hands on my shoulders and stared me in the eye.

"Jude, we don't know what's happening." He said slowly. "Hilltop is overrun with walkers right now. It sounds like someone killed someone else and the infection took over. Me an' Merle are going to make sure we can save Hilltop and the people there. And we're all scared because if someone killed someone else, we're not safe anymore."

I stared at Uncle Daryl and nodded.

Part of me wished I didn't ask.


	3. Chapter 3

_AN: I have the theme song from Sonic's Hilltop Zone in my head. Yes, shut up. _

**-Into the Fire- **

I followed Uncle Daryl across the yard to where Uncle Merle stayed. He'd cleaned up the back side of the yard and had taken up a whole cell block to himself. He'd cleaned out all the walkers and started to rebuild the broken wall alone. No one really went over there, almost everyone was too afraid of Merle Dixon. But he was useful and I liked to hang out in his workshop whenever I could. He always had something cool to show me.

Uncle Merle was scary because he was always alone. He didn't do well with the whole concept of family. But he respected my dad well enough. And Uncle Daryl always seemed to know exactly how to keep his brother from losing his shit. He made a great enforcer, according to Carl, and he would have been a cop in the order of things, if there'd been much need to have those kinds of things around anymore. Dad was still considered a police officer by most people, but we'd sort of moved beyond the point of stealing. The group we'd ended up with wasn't as petty as what society seemed to have been like way back when.

Sometimes, Carl spoke of Uncle Merle like he was a bad guy, though. He talks about being scared of him, and about how mean Merle used to be. He says that Merle used to hate everyone who wasn't Daryl, or who wasn't white-skinned. I don't understand why, and I've never really seen anything to even support that kind of talk, but Carl insists that it was true.

All I knew was that I would rather have Uncle Merle backing me up than pretty much anyone else in all of Hilltop, or Woodbury... or the prison for that matter. I'd rather have Uncle Merle at my side than even my dad. And dad was pretty bad ass when it came down to it.

I bounded ahead of Uncle Daryl and slipped into the lean-to that Uncle Merle built for working kind of outside.

Uncle Merle greeted me with a big smile. He had been cleaning hides, until I walked in.

"Hey there kid." Merle drawled. "You here to help clean all a' these?"

I shook my head and wrinkled my nose. I still wasn't big on the whole hunting and cleaning game side of things. It was pretty gross.

Merle laughed at the look on my face. "Fair enough." He agreed easily. "What can I do for you?"

"Merle." Daryl called as he stepped into the shade of the lean-to.

The look on Daryl's face told his brother everything he needed to know.

"Shit." Merle hissed. "Who's ass needs kickin'?"

Daryl shrugged. "Something's happened at Hilltop." He explained. "Sounds like there's been a Walker outbreak. Someone killed someone else and now the town's been compromised."

"Well I'll be damned." Merle said with a shake of his head. "And you remember that Ol' Officer Friendly wanted to lock me away for fear a' that."

I smiled to myself. 'Officer Friendly' was the nickname Merle used for my dad when he wasn't happy with him.

"Do we have a plan?" Merle asked further.

Daryl shrugged again. "I convinced Rick to let us go have a look, take a scout. See if things can't be salvaged. Send the scout back with whatever information we choose."

"And if it's no good?" Merle asked, and I noticed a mean kind of glint in his eye.

"I promised that I'd torch Hilltop." Daryl said.

Merle glanced at me. "You shouldn't be listenin' to this."

"I already heard it all." I assured my uncle. "And I wanna help."

Merle snorted and smiled. Daryl shook his head.

"Seriously?" I pressed, more whiny than I should have been if I expected to be treated like an adult. "I can shoot! I can sneak! You know I'm pretty good at that."

"And your dad will lock me away for even entertaining the thought that you could come with us." Merle told me, ruffling my hair with his good hand.

"You wouldn't have treated Carl like this." I pointed out, giving Uncle Daryl my best puppydog eyes.

"Sorry, Jude." Daryl said apologetically. "I can't risk you on this one."

"What if you take Glenn as a scout?" I asked. "He'll be able to keep me safe!"

Merle shrugged.

"And you don't call me Little Ass Kicker for no reason!" I added.

Merle outright laughed at me for that one. "Kid, you've gotta stay here." He said quietly. "This isn't something that you need to deal with."

"And don't even think about sneaking out after us." Daryl warned. "Your brother pulled that shit all the time and it never ended well for him." He frowned, like there was a story that still haunted him, like there was a death that he could never forgive himself for allowing. "Or us, as a group, for that matter."

I grumbled under my breath, a few words that my dad would definitely not have approved of.

Uncle Merle laughed again. "She learn those ones from you, little brother?"

"I was just gonna ask you the same thing." Daryl replied with a smirk.

"Okay, I promise that I won't follow you." I said sincerely. "But can I at least stay on watch?"

Daryl nodded. "Yeah, I'll tell your dad." He agreed. "And maybe Carol will let you use her rifle this time."

"Awesome!" I exclaimed.

I didn't see the look of worry that passed between the Dixon brothers as I bounded off to tell my dad and Aunt Carol that I could be on watch while they were gone.


	4. Chapter 4

_AN: Oh my God, I love writing as Little Ass Kicker. :3 Just thought y'all oughta know._

**-Watchtower-**

Dad didn't let me go on patrol but he did let me go up in the tower with Aunt Carol every day while Uncle Merle and Uncle Daryl were gone. It was better than walking around the edge of the prison all day by a long shot. Aunt Carol showed me how to use the scope on her rifle and when I wasn't using the binoculars to keep an eye out for walkers, I got to hold the gun and use the scope to keep an eye out for walkers.

It seemed like all we did on watch duty was keep an eye out for walkers.

I didn't really like the rifle, it was too heavy, but the railing on the tower meant that I could rest it, as long as I didn't drop it.

I like Aunt Carol. She's one of the coolest adults around. She doesn't get mad at me for wanting to go shoot things. And she doesn't mind when I want to do more girly things, like cook, or make soap or whatever. She was fun to hang out with because she told dirty jokes when she was sure no one was listening and she sang songs and told stories that she used to perform for her daughter before the walkers started.

I'm kinda sad that Aunt Carol's daughter got killed. She'd have been about the same age as my brother, and I think that they would have gotten married instead of Carl and Beth. That would have been better, because we'd have been a real family, and maybe Dad wouldn't be so sad all the time.

We stayed up in that tower for the two whole days that Uncle Daryl and Uncle Merle were gone. They didn't even send their scout back like they'd promised. That made Aunt Carol worry, but I told her that they'd be fine.

And I was right. Like always.

I saw them coming up the road first, their blue truck bouncing as Daryl drove too fast down the dirt path. I knew it was Uncle Daryl driving without even seeing because Uncle Merle can't drive with one hand, and Uncle Daryl doesn't trust anyone else to drive his truck. He loves that truck as much as Uncle Merle loves his motorbike.

"Told you they were okay." I said to Aunt Carol as I climbed down the staircase to go meet the truck.

Word travelled fast when someone came or went around here. It was a security measure and Dad insisted. I was running to the gate to meet my Uncles and someone else was already running back to the prison to go find my dad to tell him that his scouting party had come back.

I met Uncle Daryl and Uncle Merle in the parking lot we'd set up.

"Hey!" I called, waving.

Uncle Daryl smiled at me from inside the truck, but I could see it was forced. Something bad had happened at Hilltop. Uncle Merle was still in the truck, too, talking to someone in the back seat. They sat for a half a minute longer before getting out. Their scout was with them, some guy I didn't know, and Daryl helped a familiar face out of the back seat of the truck.

I knew I was smiling at the new arrival, I couldn't help it. "Jules!"

She held out her arms to me as soon as Uncle Daryl let go of her hand and I ran over for a hug. "Hey there Ass Kicker." She said easily, her light Boston accent making my nickname sound funny to my ears. "You bein' good?"

"Always." I replied, pulling myself away from Jules.

Jules was younger than Daryl by a little bit. She'd been in Georgia visiting friends when the walkers started in earnest. All of her friends died at the beginning and she'd managed to hole up in an old mansion on a working farm and scavenge food and medical supplies and stuff from the nearby towns to sustain herself for years.

Dad said that she was "invaluable" in helping build Hilltop.

She still lived on that big ol' farm all by herself. She preferred to be alone, she said. She liked the quiet. Sometimes Uncle Merle would go visit her for a while, and other people, the oldest family members I guess, would go and help her on her farm. Dad would go sometimes, so would Uncle Daryl. Jules supplied lots of stuff to Hilltop and Woodbury, and even to us. She was a master at preserving food and she took care of all of that stuff for everyone else, in exchange for help from the first group of survivors to go work the farm when she needed help.

I'd never been to her house yet, but there was talk about sending me to learn how to maintain the place. Apparently it was really pretty over there. Maggie and Beth said it was like a perfect fairytale farm house and when you were there, you could almost forget that the world was taken over by walkers.

Carol said it was a secret place, that not everyone knew where she was and that most people never would know unless something happened to Jules. She also said that she wanted to retire there and that Jules was more than happy to let her. I didn't like the thought of Aunt Carol leaving, it would be so quiet without her, but then when I think about Jules living all alone, I think that maybe moving out to her farm wouldn't be such a bad idea.

And then Jules would start singing some song that everyone else seemed to know, or make a dirty joke at Uncle Daryl's expense and everyone would laugh and try to convince her to move into the prison. And when she refused, they'd tell her she was weird and she'd make another reference to something from before the walkers that I didn't get and effectively solidify the fact that she was weird indeed and I reconsidered wanting to move in with her.

I liked Jules. She was fun, even if she was really weird sometimes.

"Where's your dad?" Uncle Daryl asked.

I shrugged. "Dunno, I was up in the tower with Carol for the last two days, like you told me."

Daryl shot a smile at Carol, impressed, I think, that she'd been able to keep me under tabs. I hated the fact that everyone thought I was too much like my brother was when he was my age. Good God, I wasn't Carl. I didn't run away when people told me not to, even if I really, REALLY wanted to sometimes. I understood the dangers of being alone beyond our perimeters. I grew up with it drilled into my head. Just 'cause I was a rebel didn't mean I was gonna be dumb about it.

Uncle Merle and Uncle Daryl didn't look too happy and I didn't wanna push them for anything yet. I hovered quietly, staying just out of the way enough while the grown ups talked so that I could hear everything, but wouldn't get told to go away.

My dad arrived momentarily, with Andrea in tow, and he didn't even need to ask any questions before everyone started sharing information.

Daryl nodded towards Jules. "We found a stray."

"Are you hurt?" Dad asked. "Is that farm of yours okay?"

"I'm fine." Jules assured my dad with a pat on his arm and a small smile. "And the farm is as solid and stable as ever. I was just making my weekly run to Hilltop to barter goods when I ran into your boys."

"Did you have to torch the place?" Dad asked.

A hush fell over everyone assembled.

"No." Daryl answered carefully.

I could see that Andrea relaxed as Daryl answered, but my dad didn't. Something else was wrong.

"How bad is it?" Dad asked.

"Hilltop is crawlin' with walkers." Uncle Merle said. "Not bad enough to merit torching the place, but it looks like a good chunk of the townsfolk are infected and dead."

My dad said a word that I'm not supposed to repeat.

"Rick," Jules said quietly. "I'm so sorry. I took out a few walkers when I got there. I thought maybe it was a herd. I didn't realize this was an outbreak until Daryl and Merle showed up."

"And the survivors?" Dad asked, anger creeping around the edges of his voice.

"We found some of them." Daryl explained slowly. "They were caught off guard."

"Everyone is armed!" Dad growled. "There's no excuse for this!"

"Rick, calm down." Jules said placatingly. She was really good at defusing things when they got potentially explosive. "From what we gathered, it sounded like the first Walker was someone inside the town."

"So we have a murder investigation to perform?" Dad asked, his cop voice coming out to play.

Jules shook her head. "Not 'til we can get everything cleaned up properly."

Dad made a growling noise in his throat. "Michonne is supposed to be in Hilltop. And Tyrese. Where are they?"

"We didn't see them." Merle said. "No one knew where they were."

Dad said another word I'm not allowed to repeat.

"Look, Rick, we came back to tell you what was happening. We'll go back and start cleaning up, take names of the dead and see if we can figure out what's happened." Daryl said. "We'll figure this out."

Dad shook his head. "I'll go." He replied. "Andrea, make a run over to Woodbury. Get Carl and Glenn. Bring them here. We'll brief them on what's going on when you get here. Then we'll make a better plan, head back to Hilltop and see if we can't clean this mess up."

"Should I bring Hershel?" Andrea asked.

Dad shrugged. "Maybe? If he's up to it. I dunno what we're walking into here."

Andrea nodded and moved past Uncle Merle to get another one of our vehicles. She knew better than to take Daryl's truck.

"What do you want us to do?" Uncle Daryl asked.

Dad shook his head. "Get some rest. Get some food." He said slowly. "I don't know when we're going to head over to Hilltop, and I don't know what we should be expecting when we get there. I'd rather you be rested up and ready to go than have to wait."

"What are you gonna do?" Jules asked.

Dad frowned to himself, trying to give an answer that wouldn't scare everyone worse than they already were. "I'm gonna think."


	5. Chapter 5

**-To Hilltop-**

Dad made his decision pretty quickly.

I don't think anyone blamed him for rushing things. People's lives were more important than debating on whether or not it was worth risking the lives of the rescue party.

I hovered, and I listened. It's what I do. I'm pretty good at sitting quietly, unnoticed in the corners or in the shadows. Uncle Daryl taught me how to be quiet. Said it was some kind of important skill I needed to learn – how to sit still and be quiet. He said I needed to learn to be one with everything, and when I learned how to do it, things wouldn't get to me as easily and I'd be able to see clearly in any situation. He called it Zen or something.

I hate to admit that Uncle Daryl was right, though. I'd used my new found super powers for mostly good. Unlike my brother who always ran off and got in trouble, I listened and learned and did what I was told, but managed to get things done before anyone else had the chance to do it.

I was like the cobbler elves in the fairy stories Carol told me when I was a kid.

So I sat, quietly in the farthest corner of the kitchen, and listened as Carl, Glenn and Hershel arrived with Andrea. Carol had made food and Uncle Daryl was standing in the opposite corner of the kitchen eating what I assumed was mashed potatoes and vegetables from our garden out of a bowl and scowling at everyone. Some things never changed around here.

Pleasantries were exchanged, briefly and Dad decided that the quicker we could get this meeting going the better.

"Hilltop's been compromised. I assume Andrea briefed you on the way over?" Dad said bluntly.

Carl nodded and rubbed his hand over his face. He looked tired. I wondered if something was happening over at Woodbury.

"Who coulda done it?" Carl asked. "I thought we'd built up a good community here."

Hershel frowned. "Maybe it was an outsider?"

"Hilltop didn't report any new survivors arriving," Dad pointed out.

"Maybe they didn't get a chance?" Hershel asked. "If they did have newcomers arrive just before the outbreak..."

"I don't want to consider murder as the reason for this!" Dad said abruptly, interrupting Hershel.

Hershel looked ashamed for even suggesting such a thing and nodded.

"You can't rule it out, Dad. Not yet," Carl pointed out calmly. "You have a plan?"

"We're going to do a clean up. Right now," Dad said simply. "We can't let it go, just in case there is something else going on there, we can't leave this to destroy what we've built."

"We're just gonna walk right into Hilltop?" Glenn asked a little nervously. I didn't like Glenn much; he was always nervous, but he was pretty tough when he needed to be, at least according to Uncle Daryl.

"We have weapons," Dad replied bluntly. "We have manpower. We have the element of surprise."

"We also haven't got a clue about what's happened," Carol piped in from where she stood, closer to Uncle Daryl. "What if it is someone else out there? Then we're dealing with people who don't mind killing innocent people to start an infection, or letting walkers loose on a town."

"I've considered that. I really have," Dad replied, slowly. He was sounding more exhausted by the second. "And I don't think that we can afford to wait on this. If there is someone out there, and I'm not saying that there is, we need to prove that this isn't a group of people they can screw around with. This isn't something that we can let go without fighting back. We can't let these deaths just go quietly, that's not fair to the people who were counting on us for support."

Hershel nodded and Glenn shifted uneasily in his chair. Andrea was being surprisingly quiet, like she wasn't about to argue with my Dad. That was new.

We'd been at peace for as long as I could remember and I'd only lived through one walker invasion in the prison in that same time. Apparently, when I was born, they had to reconsider things and secure the prison way better than they originally thought.

Carl cleared his throat and all the eyes in the room turned to my brother.

"Where's Michonne and Tyrese?"

Uncle Daryl set his bowl down on the stove. "That's a damn good question, Little Man."

Carl smirked at the use of his childhood nickname and shook his head.

"We didn't see either of them," Uncle Daryl continued, bitterly. "And we ran into Jules kicking ass and taking names, kind of. She was already thinning out the walkers when we got there. Her and her damn slingshot up in a tree fer Chrissakes."

Carl laughed and even Dad and Hershel couldn't help but smile. Jules was a tough little thing and she almost never used a gun, favouring her slingshot over most other ranged weapons and preferring a quarterstaff as her melee weapon if she had a choice.

"Is she here?" Carl asked hopefully. Carl had had a crush on Jules when they first met, but she was quite a bit older than he was, even though she didn't look like it. I kind of wondered if he still liked her like that, even though he was married to Beth now.

"Yeah, somewhere," Dad agreed with a frown. He shot a glance at Daryl who shrugged in return.

"And you thought I was bad at stayin' in the house!" Carl exclaimed, earning himself another laugh from the group.

I got up slowly from my spot on the floor as everyone else laughed at the joke.

Uncle Daryl had been staring at me the whole time, a look of approval on his face. He gave me the smallest of nods and I took off, intending to go find Jules.

"I'll go find her," I heard Uncle Daryl say slowly as I booked it down the hall.

Uncle Merle hadn't been in the meeting, either. I decided that he might know where Jules was, so I headed in the direction of his room.

My feet didn't make much noise as I ran through the prison towards Uncle Merle's apartment, it shouldn't have surprised me that he didn't hear me coming.

I had to stop myself from screaming in surprise when I arrived at Uncle Merle's apartment. He and Jules were... Lemme just say that they were busy, and I was really unhappy to have had to witness that. I stood unintentionally dumbstruck in the doorway, mouth hanging open in shock and I decided that first I needed to bleach my innocent twelve-year-old eyes, and that second, I definitely could understand why Carl had a crush on Jules. I was also kind of jealous and self-conscious just then. Jules was waaaaaay prettier than I was.

"Ah, Christ, Jude!" Uncle Merle yelled as he saw me standing in the doorway.

"Dad and Uncle Daryl are lookin' for you two!" I shouted back, wrinkling my nose. "Put yer pants on, that's just GROSS!"

Jules barked a laugh and pushed Uncle Merle away from her, pulling a blanket over her. "Thanks, Jude!" She said. "An' sorry you had to see that!"

I grinned cheekily and turned and booked it back in the other direction before Uncle Merle could yell at me more. I was gonna have nightmares for a week.

I ran directly into Uncle Daryl, nearly falling over and landing on my butt as I bounced off his stomach.

"Shit," He swore, grabbing my arm to keep me from falling. "Where you runnin' off to?"

"Away from Uncle Merle," I replied easily. "And maybe to cry in my room for the rest of the night."

"Why?"

I looked up at Uncle Daryl and wrinkled my nose. "Well, let's just say that you don't have t' give me the birds and bees talk you keep threatenin' me with anymore."

Uncle Daryl laughed nervously and messed up my hair. "Sorry 'bout that," He apologized. "Let's uh... let's not tell yer Dad about that, okay?"

I nodded. That was definitely something I was willing to keep a secret.


End file.
